


Read Between the Lines

by NeoVenus22



Category: Thoughtcrimes
Genre: F/M, Leap For Prompts Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-19
Updated: 2009-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-04 15:11:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeoVenus22/pseuds/NeoVenus22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brendan isn't a reader.  Freya is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Read Between the Lines

Brendan didn't read much. Well, he spent most of his time elbow-deep in files and paperwork, and had neither the time nor the inclination towards reading recreationally. Although sometimes if the morning was slow and the coffee was still brewing, she'd catch him flipping through the New York Times. He read slowly, deliberately, absorbing each word in turn.

Freya's apartment was lined wall-to-wall with books almost. She had no need for any other knick-knacks, although sometimes her sister or Michael or even Brendan would grace her with a gift. Freya appreciated the gestures, but she was no longer a girl who thought it mattered. She liked books. She liked books, and she read fast. In the past, she couldn't allow for gaps in her thought process, needed a constant stream of words that she could focus on and control. She was better now, had space and solitude, but she couldn't deny her friendship with the written word. Books had saved her.

Brendan ran his fingertips over the spines, reading the titles silently in his head. Freya listened in on him, hearing the names of her friends in his voice, weirdly comforted by this. "You've read all these?" he asked, glancing over at her with his fingers paused on James Joyce.

"All of them. Some more than others. The people at Barnes &amp; Noble know me by name."

Brendan nodded. "Wow."

Somehow, she wanted more. She wanted him to ask about her favorite authors, what made her go back and re-read something. She wanted him to share in this part of her, this part that was so important.

"You think it's weird," she said, not accusing, just anxious.

Brendan's eyebrows lifted slightly, as though she'd asked something ridiculous. "Why would I think it was weird?"

And suddenly, it didn't matter so much that Brendan would probably never read these books and probably never ask her about them. Anyone else could, but Brendan was one of the few privy to the secret as to why she had the books in the first place. He didn't need to ask because he accepted them as a part of her, and that meant more than she ever thought it would.


End file.
